how tiktok ruined reading + the "booktok book" formula

everyone I have got a bee in my Bonnet and just like any white guy with a podcast mic and some unsolicited opinions I have decided to share my views on the internet I don't mean to be factious I've just been seeing a lot of interesting discourse online this week specifically about book talk book talk is a platform and a community that I really care about very very deeply it's a community where I found so much joy so much passion so much enthusiasm for literature and you know the publishing industry is one that I just love and have dedicated my life to and so I wanted to talk about book talk and specifically some criticisms of the platform so these are some things that have been being said recently and I quote I'll never forgive Tik Tok for what it's done to literature every book just being a generic genre of good girl bad boy mafia boss Etc I miss the books that critiqued Society so hard you felt angry yourself I miss the literature that only made sense to those who cared I miss poetry that you really had to analyze to make sense of it I miss the gut-wrenching historical books I miss when literature actually meant something there was also this article in British GQ in the shallow world of book talk being a reader is more important than actually reading so let's talk about it here's the thing book clubs have always existed or at least they have existed for a very very long time one of the earliest recorded book clubs was in 1634 it was started by an absolute Legend called Anne Hutchinson and basically she was the wife of a sailor and she would organize a women's group aboard a ship to discuss sermons and Bible verses and I think that is Testament to the fact that reading the Bible listening to sermons was all about trying to understand the world which is so unfathomably large especially in 1634 there would be so many things happening around you that you just couldn't explain and so the value of religious texts is that they helped you to make sense of the things going on around you and for me in the present day centuries later centuries on I still feel like that is the value of reading books for me books help me to understand the world they help me to understand my place in it I think they're a lesson in empathy for understanding other people's experiences which I myself have never been through behind me is a wealth of experiences that I have never had we are so absurdly lucky to live in a world and exist in a world where people have distilled a lifetime of experiences into a palatable let's say 300 Page novel where we can learn about the things they've been through and the lessons they learned along the way the people that they lost you know they can be immortalized through books and through fiction and through reading reading is something that is such an enriching enlightening experience but it's mostly something that we do in isolation but this gathering on a ship in 1634 is a reminder that there has always been a desire to share to come together to pull our ideas together to create Community out of activities that we do in isolation and I think it also refers back to the oratory tradition of Storytelling where stories would be passed down through the generations so that people could learn lessons so that people could begin to understand the world around them storytelling is something we have always sought to to share and I think that book clubs have been a way of us doing that in a modern capacity forming communities out of our Hobbies is nothing new okay rip and Hutchinson you would have loved book talk people naturally gravitate towards other people with common interest and so all of this is to say I think that is how book talk was born book talk is essentially the world's biggest book club now if you're not familiar with book talk it is essentially a side of Tik Tok where creators and viewers share their thoughts and opinions and recommendations of books why would you write this why would why would you write this book books you're currently reading books you want to read in the future or books you have read way back when in your childhood and want to reminisce about and you kind of have that Nostalgia attached to them it's fun to come together and to get to share these experiences and the hashtag book talk on Tik Tok has over 200 billion views it is insane the reach that this has had we are talking billion this is like a conversation between Elon Musk and Taylor Swift billions but a lot of people both in and outside of publishing have very strong opinions on book talk like the ones that I just shared and also what is regarded as a book talk book and so I wanted to unpack all of this basically firstly let's talk about this girl called Daisy who posted on Tik Tok that she'll never forgive Tik Tok for what it's done to literature because every book is the same what I would like to remind you is that this is the four for you page it is for you the for you page is based on content that you engage with it is quite literally for you so with that in mind if your feed is not diverse is not thought-provoking is not talking about historical fiction that really matters or poetry that makes you think maybe just maybe you are not following the right creators what I love about book talk is that it has democratized the publishing industry now people from all kinds of backgrounds are sharing their book recommendations you don't need the privilege of being able to go to university and get a degree in journalism to be able to write for a major publication and therefore share book reviews you don't need to have published three bestsellers to be taken seriously for your opinion if you share an authentic endearing captivating book review that really resonates with someone they may go out and buy that book and really really love it and fall in love with it just as much as you did did and there is something so powerful about that this means that books are being platformed that may not have the biggest marketing budget and remember that publishing is all a bit of a guessing game book advances are pretty much just a guess at how many copies one Publishing House thinks one book will sell and they will invest in the marketing accordingly so some books are absolute gems will just not get as big a marketing budget because the Publishers may have decided it's not worth the gamble a lot of publishing you have to remember is a total guessing game and anyone in publishing will tell you that you know some books get these crazy huge book deals and then completely flop and others get really tiny book deals and blow up and become absolutely huge like it is a guessing game what I think is really great about book talk is that if I go to a book shop today and I find a random little book in a tiny little corner read it and love it I can share it on the platform and it might reach millions of people and that is the power of book talk and I am just one of many many creators there are so many amazing people sharing their views on literature sharing their thoughts sharing their opinions in really mesmerizing ways I have bought so many of my favorite books because of a Creator's recommendation my point is if you are finding that everyone on your feed is just recommending the same couple of books maybe you need to diversify your searches maybe you need to go out and find creators that you could potentially love and you can do that by searching hashtags like hash classic literature hash black literature # queer literature # female authors you know if you start to seek out the content that you would enjoy and then engage with those creators a promise you your feed is going to be perfect the creators I follow are rarely sharing the same books and it's so exciting to me to know that there is this huge possibility of literature and just because today I have the time let's go over your requests a book that critiques Society so hard you felt angry yourself for me books like Open Water by Caleb AUM nson have been galvanizing have been so important thinking about the black male body in modern culture small things like these by Clare Keegan which talks about injustices toward women in Ireland black butterflies is a really important book all about resistance and Humanity set in Bosnia against the Loveless World a book about a political prisoner in Palestine I could go on books like the final Revival of opal and Nev homefire by CA Shamy human acts by H Kang these books do exist they are out there people are recommend remending them the literature that only made sense to those who cares maybe the unbearable likeness of being panesi by Susanna Clark the seven moons of Maly almida second place by Rachel kusk by Grand Central Station I sat down and wept The Poetry that you really had to analyze to make sense of it Heritage Aesthetics bad diaspora poems self-portrait as athow bright fear these books are out there my point is to me the claim that book talk only promotes the same set of books is just a laugh able one because you can curate your own feed it is for you it's kind of like saying that every restaurant has the same menu if you go to different branches of McDonald's every single night like isn't it crazy that all these burger restaurants only sell Burgers go out and get yourself some sushi it's out there I promise next Point moving on the idea that book talk is more about the performance of reading than actually reading it's more about pretending to be a reader than actually being a reader and spending time reading here's what I want to say you are allowed to spend time engaging with your hobby outside of the activity of the hobby itself time spent scrolling on B talk is not reading this is true however it does not matter how much you love something it would not be possible for you to be doing that thing all of the time unless you're like obsessed with breathing if breathing is your hobby good for you knock it out the park I'm so happy for you God star but even the world's biggest fan of basketball could not play basketball all of the time part of their hobby will also be discussing basketball collecting basketball paraphernalia attending other people's basketball games watching basketball on the television maybe listening to a podcast about basketball do you see what I'm getting at if someone had a bedroom that was all decorated with like basketball paraphernalia and merchandise we wouldn't say they were pretending to be a fan of basketball or that their love for basketball was performative and so why do we treat something like reading differently it would be so draining to be reading every hour of every day you wouldn't take anything in and then I'm sure you would say you're just doing that performatively that's the great Paradox you can't win read too much it's performative don't read enough it's performative I felt like I was about to launch into that like America forrera speech in the Barbie movie but it's true part of the hobby of being interested in reading and literature is engaging with the hobby outside of the activity of reading you are allowed to listen to podcasts about books read articles about books scroll through Tik Tok and hear people talk about books collect books to reorganize your bookshelves if that makes you happy and you're engaging with your hobby who cares unfortunately sometimes a random journalist from British GQ cares very much and will suggest that what you are doing is inherently shallow what I would say is that engaging with the hobby of reading inspires you to want to read more helps you to be drawn to the things that you will also enjoy it helps you to find new books that you might not have discovered otherwise maybe seeing how other people annotate books or review books and discuss books helps you to be a better critic helps you to be a better audience member a better consumer of these mediums and I would like to point out that a study by yugov found that over a quarter of women so 27% said that they read daily compared to a sixth of men so 133% according to the Guardian 48% of women would consider themselves to be readers in comparison to 26% of men so I do think it's worth factoring in that this is a female dominated Hobby and book talk is a female dominated space so do you think it might be worth pointing out that it kind of reeks of misogyny a little bit to talk about reading as something that could be performative when seeing Sports which typically generally skew more male would not be considered performative in fact I've never heard anyone say oh you're a performative sports fan it's just not something that ever gets brought up in the cultural conversation and yet things that generally majoritively women enjoy for example boy bands for example reading are often somehow dismissed as being superficial frivolous performative I don't think it's a coincidence I also want to talk about what makes a book talk book because the term Book talk book is a marketing term a book talk book basically just means a book that people are talking about a book that is selling well often when you go into bookstores now they will have a display that says you've seen this on book talk I've seen on book talk book talk made me buy it it has become a bit of a staple in the bookstore kind of landscape and in the publishing World there are genuinely people on the internet who have said this is the end of the world as if this is the worst thing that could possibly happen that books that are getting a lot of Word of Mouth traction and that people want to buy are being being sold and displayed in bookshops which is where people go to buy books it is for ease it is because those are the books that people are coming into the stores and asking the employees where they are how they can find them can these be ordered in for me and so the book seller because book selling is selling a product it's marketing it's about strategy they are setting up a display saying here are the book talk books that you are looking for here are the books that are being spoken about on the internet that are popular that are trending and this often times Arts organically a bunch of people recommend a specific book because they enjoyed reading it people take that recommendation by word of mouth and then they read it and they enjoy it so they promote it too and they probably connected with it because the person who they saw recommending it was someone they thought they had similar taste to for example the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a book that was absolutely huge on book talk and the reason for that is that it has great pacing it's well written it's thrilling it has twists and turns it is emotional it's beautiful so I think when we say book talk books what we really mean is popular books books that are currently selling well in the publishing industry at large but maybe they were specifically impacted or influenced by Tik Tok because Word of Mouth promotion has been sped up exponentially by this platform that didn't used to exist but there have always been authors who were commercially successful and popular that may not be regarded as like the peak of literature they're not going to win literary prizes but a lot of people connected with them therefore they are good you know I think we have to remember that publishing is an ecosystem and in order for those kind of elevated historical political experimental books to be published that not everyone wants to read we need commercial fiction that does sell in high numbers because publishing is an ecosystem the money made from the popular books helps to fund the more experimental risky books but again if you're looking for books like that there are creators making content about those more experimental kind of books think of authors like James Patterson James Patterson has pumps out books I would describe his books as the kind of books that you find in like an airport that your dad would buy on your way to a holiday somewhere you know we need the dads to be buying the James passes and books because it pumps money into the industry that we love and this is the same as the fact that some songs reach number one in the music charts and some never make the top 100 the number one song just happened to resonate with more people but your favorite song could be just a random album track that not everyone knows that isn't being played on the radio so when bookstores have a table that is dedicated to book talk books that is not synonymous with trashy it's synonymous with popular these books have connected and resonated with a lot of people but they also don't always appeal to the same audiences love them or hate them two huge books on book talk are it ends with us and the secret history these are totally different opposite ends of the spectrum but they have both seen success on the platform and that speaks to the diversity and range of creators and consumers so a book talk book shelf in a bookstore is just Marketing in the same way that a classic shelf in a book store is just marketing it groups together books that are vastly different think about a Classic's shelf all that makes those books the same is that they are old is that they were published decades ago that's why you have authors like Bronte like Tolstoy like cha like kamu like defo like Plath all sitting side by side despite having very little in common when it comes to their writing styles their subject areas these are very different projects these are very different works of art so I definitely think there is something for everyone you just have to find it and no one is forcing you to read these books just because they're popular I would like to point out that books serve multiple purposes sometimes it is what you learn from them sometimes it is how they make you feel you are allowed to just enjoy art subjectively just have a really good time with a book if a book really just takes you away from a horrible stressful day it doesn't matter how trashy or ridiculous or silly it is if you enjoyed it that is a good thing and that art has value it has inherent value because you found value in it I like that Tik Tok is a Content algorithm not a social algorithm which basically means that content is prioritized over the people with the most followers but what is great about book talk and Tik Tok in general being such a ubiquitous Universal platform is that it is bringing back and kind of excav ating The Archives of publishing bringing back hidden Gems or lost gems from the past so for example the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo first came out in 2013 the song of Achilles another huge book talk book which has had a lot of critical success and acclaim was first published in 2011 and then returned to the bestseller charts in the last two years it ends with us which has been a huge runaway success on Tik Tok was first published in 2016 they both die at the end I did not realize originally came out in 2017 and we were Liars with was first published in 2014 so a lot of these books that are being advertised as book talk books actually existed before book talk even existed they were not written with book talk in mind this is a retrospective term being applied to them in hindsight and what book talk book is synonymous with is popular successful widely appealing so I guess going forward the question or the argument would be will people start writing books specifically for book talk while they start writing with a book talk audience in mind is there a kind of formula firstly what I'll say is that this is partly just consumer research it is just seeing what the audience is demanding you know we've seen recently people really loving Greek mythological retellings from a female perspective or books about female rage these were gaps in the publishing industry because they may have been considered you know 5 years ago 10 years ago to be too risky that Publishers didn't want to put money into having these books being produced and edited and published because they didn't feel that they would sell very well and what book talk has turned around to them and said is yes we actually do want this there is a demand and as a result of book talk creators and viewers essentially telling the publishing industry this is what we like you get more of it so on one hand I do think it's a good thing on the other hand will people start to create what you could kind of consider to be fast fashion books you know just to fit current trends current tropes that are trending just to you know make some money this probably will start to happen more and more but going back to James Patterson James Patterson publishes around 14 books a year they are incredibly formula it is something that sells it's something that people go back to time and time again because they see it as reliable they know that when they pick up one of his books they can expect a certain type of thing specific tropes specific character arcs specific narrative Styles writing styles specific themes people eat up his Mysteries his crime novels his Thrillers they sell well so he makes more of them that is just like intro to capitalism 101 so I suppose if lots of people are saying we really love enemies to lovers or we're really loving campus novels I don't know then more enemies to lovers books will be produced and more campus novels will be published the beauty is if you don't want to read it you don't have to and I do think we have to trust the Integrity of people who work in the publishing Industries you know let's put some respect on the names of Agents on editors the people who help authors to make these books great but also go out to find the best literature that is available the best manuscripts that should be published into books that you see on the shelves publishing is a very collaborative industry let's not act like an author writes a book and then all of a sudden it's on the shelves in a bookstore there are so many people working behind the scenes to commission certain authors to pay them to help them fix things to make the books better to ask them difficult questions to ask them would they consider making changes that is the industry it's a really exciting and thriving industry but let's not forget all of those people who work behind the scenes to make sure that the books being published are are great and are of a certain standard and you know I think that this is a case of if there are certain publishing houses that you know always publish to a really high standard that have a criteria of quality when you see those Publishers publishing new books support them or book sellers especially independent bookstores who really carefully curate their selection and their collection of books that they are selling support those people support those Publishers support those book sellers support those shops keep pumping money into the places where you know it is being used well you know and if someone wants to read exclusively enemies to lovers books or mafia books we can just leave them be they can do that and like I said publishing is an ecosystem if they are buying books if they are investing in the industry it means that there's more of a likelihood that the books that we do want to be published will also be published in turn because there will be money for them to be published so yeah now speaking of tropes there is also the idea that book talk oversimplifies things down to their tropes and I do agree with this lots of Articles criticize the fact that the nature of short form content some sometimes loses Nuance sometimes oversimplifies things and so books do boil down to a list of their tropes but I would say this is just a way of helping other people to recognize the themes in a book especially without too many spoilers and tropes are also not new Jane Austin was writing essentially enemies to lovers romances this style of character development is not new it was not something that was born out of Tik Tok I think it's just that we have found terms to describe them overall I do feel like the good outweighs the bad in most of these things I also think we have to bear in mind that a lot of these articles are written using buzzwords they know that book talk is a buzzword they know that a controversial headline will get clicks calling book talk shallow is something that just gets people to click on the article and that's how journalism works I think what I find irritating is when these articles suggest that consumers or the people using Tik Tok are idiots it talks about them in a very general enzed way in a very abstract way rather than considering the individual who has agency who has an intelligent brain of their own it talks about the Tik Tok consumer as a concept not individual people who make up that Community before I move on to my next bullet point I would just like to let you know that today's video is very very kindly brought to you by 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having said all of this I also want to say that I do think there are valid criticisms of book talk specifically I think the way that people talk to one another sometimes it can be so toxic like the character assassinations that you see for someone just sharing an opinion about a book maybe they're saying you know I didn't love the pacing of this book because it felt a little too slow or maybe the themes of this book didn't really resonate with me I didn't find the characters very believable or I thought that the peripheral characters were underwritten and they didn't add anything to the plot someone will then say I hate you you have the worst taste I've ever heard it can be absolutely insane I think that being on the internet and being kind of digitally dextrous growing up in a generation where the internet has always always sort of been a part of our lives and social media has always been a part of our Lives online discourse has always been a part of our lives at least our adult lives I think it's sometimes makes us forget the power of the language that we're using sometimes we are using such extreme language you know I think about Instagram comments where we call each other Legend icon queen king you look like a goddess like all of this stuff like we use these words so flippantly so nonchalantly it's like the way that we say laugh out loud I just burst out laughing and really what we did is slight exhale you know we are used to using incredibly extreme language to express quite small sentiments really calling someone an icon or a legend those are the strongest words you could possibly use and what we really mean is like you look pretty good in that picture because we've got so used to using superlatives in complimentary ways we also use superlatives in negative ways and derogatory ways as well we're very comfortable maybe too comfortable posting on the internet that we hate someone that we can't stand someone that this person annoys the hell out of me that kind of thing I would say that I would find it way more interesting if someone gave a one star review to my favorite book that I rated five stars but could tell me why I always think the most important question is why to ask yourself and to ask others you know what was it about that book that you didn't like that you didn't engage with that didn't peque your interest what was it why and then we can have a thought-provoking interesting discussion if I love a book and give it five stars and then you read it and you don't enjoy it and you just tell me I'm an idiot or that I have the worst tasting books ever because you didn't like it you know we're not having an interesting conversation there and the potential to have that conversation is sitting right there so that's one thing I also think that another issue I guess on Tik Tok or like a problematic area that I've seen on Tik Tok and book talk specifically is the desire I suppose to create an aesthetic out of things that we enjoy so for example the secret history by donat is a criticism of elitism and intellectual snobbery and for some reason Tik Tok has kind of bastardized this and taken it as an aesthetic that promotes elitism and promotes classism and promotes a lot of the things that the book was originally calling out mocking was laughing at was satirizing in the same way that Lolita I think is a book that has been hugely misunderstood if you read Lolita and thought that it glamorized pedophilia you read the wrong book or at least you didn't understand it you know you got it wrong because that book does not not glamorize that person he is a villain he is the main character of the book but you are meant to despise him you are meant to see him as deplorable of morally bankrupt he is charismatic sure he is funny sure but I think it's more of a comment on how these people do Walk Among Us these people can exist in society and go under the radar and get away with things but what they do is evil and the whole Lolita aesthetic I of dressing up like a school girl or infantilizing young women is crazy and is the complete opposite of what the book is trying to promote so suggesting for example that reading Lolita is problematic or enjoying the book Lolita is problematic is crazy and removes any kind of intellectual conversation from the chat I also think that sometimes you see bad reviews of books with intentionally horrible themes for example books that push the boundaries of what is socially morally acceptable often they do that to call out that behavior I personally think that doesn't mean we shouldn't have books about those things reading about these things and imagining them in fictional worlds is how we learn about them and how we assert moral codes and adjust our moral compass in the same way as just like I was saying before just because you don't like the main character of a book doesn't mean it's a bad book they may have been written for you intentionally not to like them I sometimes think that people forget to think about all intent and forget that human beings are flawed and so a lot of writers write about flawed characters that's what makes humans so interesting is that no one is perfect I make mistakes you make mistakes we all have flaws and so reviewing a book badly because the character was flawed if they're flawed from a writing perspective and it was not intentional that's one thing but if they were written to be flawed then it's a sign of good writing in the same way that if a book is written to be disgusting and then you were disgusted by it that's good writing that means the author achieved what they set out to do so I sometimes think the books are oversimplified and our desire to call things problematic to cancel things means that we are misdirecting our rage sometimes at books and authors who are actually on the same side as us and are also pointing the finger at that same thing they're just doing it through artistic expression through literature you know and I've touched on this already but the other kind of valid criticism I think that is of book talk is intellectual snobbery that people don't let each other just enjoy what they want to enjoy we always have to assert some kind of quality control if people enjoy it let them enjoy it I just think let people get on with their Hobbies let people get on with their interests let people get on with the books that they want to read and let's just all mind our business a little bit more I do think it's important to remember that one good book can be someone's like gateway drug into being a reader for life you know connecting with one good book in like your early 20s your late teens your 30s whenever can unlock reading for you and can mean that you become someone who thinks of them themselves as a reader someone who is actively pursuing their next read so I kind of don't care which book it is that does that for you if a book resonates with you and captures your attention and gets you to sit down and exercise the muscle of reading that's a powerful thing and please don't let intellectual snobs take that away from you because they said it's low brow any Community has teething issues and areas that could be improved but overall I feel like book talk is an extremely powerful force for good like a net positive book talk has been so powerful I mean there's a bookstore in Notting Hill that says it sales have doubled as a result of Tik Tok they directly thanked Tik Tok for their doubling in sales book to was named future books person of the year I also think that book talk means that the publishing industry is no longer being gatekeep you have to remember that so much of the publishing industry exists behind a pay wall I love the book seller it's a really great hub for literature but it is behind a pay wall you have to pay and be a member in order to access it book talk on the other hand is totally free book talk has also been a platform for sharing and platforming and amplifying books that have been banned you know there have been these concerted efforts to ban books especially very Progressive and important books in particularly America book talk creators alongside book sellers and organizations like pen for example have been working to still continue to talk about books that have been banned and that is really important work I also think about you know during black history month so many of the black creators that I follow were sharing so many amazing books I got so many great recommendations from them and these are things that are not always spoken about in other media outside of book talk so book talk creators being diverse being from all different backgrounds being from all different parts of society especially marginalized parts of society it's a platform where they can have a voice and where they can share their insights their knowledge and inform us all and the thing is the publishing industry is thriving book sales are up you know maybe a decade ago we would have thought of the book industry as something that was going to die that it was inevitable that publishing physical books would be overtaken by ebooks and audio books but physical books are thriving people are going into bookstores and I think that is partly due to the usual nature of book talk this is important stuff of course we can do better because we can always do better so overall I think that book talk is a really powerful platform it's a platform that I absolutely adore that I found so much joy in where I've connected with really interesting people interesting creators interesting viewers you know there's such a symbiotic relationship between the viewer and the Creator where I share book recommendations and they share book recommendations if you want to follow me over on book talk I mean I've spoken about it for this long you might as well and join me over there this is my handle it's jackor Edwards I'm also on Instagram I'm on pretty much every social media platform because I am as you can probably tell from this video chronically online thank you so much for watching this video thank you for listening to me rant thank you for listening to this little diet tribe that I've put on the internet I appreciate you being here let's continue the conversation down below let me know your thoughts in the comments section and I'd love to see you down there I'd love to see you on this channel subscribe if you're new and all the best stay in touch have a wonderful day I'll catch you very very soon bye-bye

Channel: Jack Edwards

Views: 523,079

Keywords: booktok, ruined reading, tiktok, booktokers, jack edwards, video essay, tiktok books, book reviews, reading aesthetic, book aesthetic, reader aesthetic

Id: xtG4OKU7q-M

Length: 34min 27sec (2067 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024